Ranveer Singh and his refreshing softness deserve to be celebrated every day — Vogue
“I always wanted to be a mainstream Hindi film actor,” said Ranveer Singh in an interview a couple of years ago. Singh is indeed a mainstream hero, but he is unlike the predecessors of his ilk. He is not the angry young man like Amitabh Bachchan was, nor is he the charming lover like Shah Rukh Khan is. He isn’t the broody and brassy Salman Khan or the reticent perfectionist Aamir Khan. In fact, he isn’t like any of his contemporaries either. And yet, despite not fitting into a specific genre, Singh has managed to carve the kind of niche for himself in Bollywood that not many of his peers can boast of.
With his sartorial choices-both on and off-screen-the actor has steadily deconstructed the one-dimensional notions surrounding manliness. Be it through his tender portrayal of masculinity across his filmography or his eccentric real-life persona, Singh can be trusted to break every reductive perception surrounding how a man, or a Hindi film hero, should behave. He is refreshingly comfortable in his own skin and repeatedly embraces his effeminate side, crediting it to the strong women he is surrounded by.
From gushing over his wife and professing his love for her publicly (never worrying about how it makes him seem like a love-sick puppy) to routinely planting kisses on the cheeks of fellow male actors with childlike zest, Singh makes no bones about being a man of love-a firm detour from the stoic machismo that Indian men feel compelled to put on. His flamboyant public displays of affection and unrestrained intensity signal how emotionally available he is as a person.
Even his sense of style is a testament to his distinctive unconventionality. During a time when most men in Bollywood favoured sombre hues and monochromatic outfits, Singh waltzed in brandishing a burst of colours and patterns. Wearing lilac pantsuits, donning skirts and sporting kohl-rimmed eyes, the actor has championed fluidity in fashion like none before him. His style choices may inspire approval and criticism in equal measure, but they only cement his self-assuredness further.
Singh’s displays of masculinity in his films no doubt have range, but irrespective of the character, there’s an ineffable emotion that the actor carries within himself which makes his portrayals exhilarating to watch. Be it Alauddin Khilji’s ferocious eyes ( Padmaavat), Jayesh’s tender smile ( Jayeshbhai Jordaar), Ram’s lascivious antics ( Ram-Leela) or Murad’s solemn presence (), Singh seems to deliberately swim against the tide to correct the toxic depiction of male swagger that has been championed in Bollywood since the Bachchan era. While he may have fallen prey to the same trends in films like Simmba (2018), he has also had the percipience to move beyond convention for the most part.
Originally published at https://www.vogue.in on July 6, 2022.
